Broadcasting is indispensable in the information-oriented society of today. Especially, telecasting that directly sends both audio and video information to audience has great influences on societies. Broadcasting technologies encompass a wide range of technological fields, such as signal processing, signal transmission and reception, and audio/video information processing, for example. Transmission forms in which program content is provided to users are various; for example, the broadcasting based on the radio such as ground and satellite waves, the cable television, and the network programs provided by use of computer communication.
The popularization of the television has almost been saturated, one more receives being found in almost all homes, the broadcast content distributed from each broadcasting station being viewed by general public. Another form of viewing broadcast content is that received content is recorded first on the viewer side and reproduced later when desired, for example.
The recent advance of digital technologies makes it practicable to store huge amounts of AV data consisting of video and audio data. For example, it is affordable for users to purchase HDDs (Hard Disc Drives) of capacities of several tens of GB or higher at comparatively low costs. Accordingly, video recorders based on the HDD and personal computers (PCs) having television program recording/reproducing capabilities, for example, have been introduced.
The HDD permits random access to the data recorded thereto. Therefore, unlike the conventional video tape, the reproduction of recorded content need not feed forward each recorded program sequentially from the beginning thereof. The HDD permits access directly to any desired program (or a particular scene or topic in each program) for reproduction. The viewing form in which a receiver (for example, a television receiver or a video recording/reproducing unit) having a mass storage such as a hard disk unit is used to receive broadcast content that is stored therein for later reproduction is referred to as “server-type broadcasting”.
According to a server-type broadcasting system, it becomes practicable that not only video and audio data be viewed realtime as with the normal television reception but also be distributed in advance for later reproduction at specified times, and, by use of the information distributed along with these video and audio data, scene search and digest viewing be executed.
However, as the HDD increases in storage size, systems capable of recording programs for as long as several tens of hours may make it difficult for users to make up their minds with which of many stored programs the viewing is to start. Therefore, content would be stored in vain unless programs desired by a user are efficiently selected to be realtime recorded or timer recorded and the viewing of stored content is supported by some means. If huge amounts of recorded content are stored on recording device, the user must sort out because it is difficult for the user to view all the stored content. Namely, it is considered to be important to provide efficient timer recording operation capabilities for users to have beneficial television program viewing activities.
Meanwhile, so-called EPG (Electronical Program Guide) is known which is obtained by superimposing a program guide for television program selection onto an image signal to be displayed on a display device of the receiving side. On the side of the CE device such as a HDD recorder, an EPG may be obtained concurrently with the recording of a broadcast program and the obtained EPG is presented when the user reproduces and views the recorded program, thereby providing a certain viewing support effect.
EPG systems are divided into a VBI (Vertical Blanking Interval) scheme (refer to patent document 1 for example) and a digital satellite scheme as used in DSS (Digital Satellite System (a trademark of Hughes Communication) (refer to patent document 2 for example).
In the VBI scheme, VBI data configuring each EPG is inserted at a position not affecting an original image of each horizontal scan line in ground-wave telecasting in the normal (VHF (Very High Frequency) band and the VBI data thus inserted is transmitted. The receiving side may generate EPG display data from the received VBI data to display the generated data on the monitor. In the digital satellite scheme, EPG data is digitized along with original image data and packetized for transmission. The receiving side stores the received EPG data into a memory thereof and generates the display data corresponding to the stored data, displaying the generated data on the monitor.
Conventionally, there exist only methods in which content lists based on EPG are merely presented for example, so that difficulties are apparently encountered in finding particular pieces of content desired by each user.
For example, a program guide display apparatus is proposed (refer to patent document 3 for example) that is capable of displaying program guides that allow the efficient recognition of programs especially desired by each user among many programs that match the preference of each user. In this case, while EPG data of two or more programs are stored, EPG data search is executed by use of an EPG data storage block 102 and keywords for program search to be entered by a user and a program guide in which programs found by this search are arranged on the basis of the information for evaluating each keyword is generated for display.
A system was also proposed in which each user sets keywords (program title, contents, and performer, for example) indicative of preferences (for identifying programs to be viewed) in advance and broadcast content matching these keywords is automatically timer-recorded.
However, there is a problem that even keywords entered by a user himself do not always apparently reflect his preference. Consequently, programs that are not liked by users and therefore unnecessary for them may be recorded, while other programs that are really wanted by users may pass by users without being recorded.
[Patent document 1]
JP-A-H06-504165 (U.S. Pat. No. 5,353,121)
[Patent document 2]
Japanese Patent Laid-open No. Hei 8-111823
[Patent document 3]
Japanese patent Laid-open No. Hei 11-308547